I don’t know where that started, but lapel pins, with that statement, were around when I was a boy. I still have some, still wear them and it works for me.

Yes, I’m Irish, at least my name is. We never used hyphenated words back in the day, whenever the hell the day was. People would just say, my mother is German and my father is Irish and my grandmother is Italian, and so on. We were always proud to be Americans, but our names were “tags” for our heritage. If I was to be proper in today’s politically correct society, I would say I’m a Heinz-American.

St. Patrick’s Day is a great excuse to crowd into bars, drink green beer, wear silly hats, ties, lapel pins and sing Irish songs. St. Patrick’s Day is the most widely celebrated saint’s day in the world. There are 9 different parades across Japan. A huge parade is held in South Korea. The Aussies start drinking from early afternoon until late at night (kind of like us Americans). Argentina, and especially in Buenos Aires, all-night long parties are held out in designated closed-off streets with people drinking beer until 7 or 8 the next morning. Buenos Aires has the 5th largest Irish community outside Ireland and over 50,000 people are out in the streets partying.

Montreal has been holding a St Patrick’s Day parade since 1824. There is a Shamrock in a corner of the Montreal flag. The Toronto Maple Leafs were originally called The Toronto St. Patricks from 1919 to 1927 and wore green jerseys.

Another strange but true fact is the color associated with Saint Patrick was originally BLUE. St. Patrick died on March 17, 461. Around the 17th century, green ribbons and shamrocks were worn in celebration and the color green became official. According to legend, when St. Patrick was spreading Christianity throughout Ireland, he would use the Shamrock, a 3-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish people. The Irish were celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in the 9th and 10th centuries. It became an official public holiday in Ireland in 1903. The United Kingdom Parliament allowed the holiday to officially be a Bank Holiday. The drinking got so out of hand that all bars were ordered closed on March 17th for the next 60 years. That law was finally repealed in the 1970s. Another reason the Irish hated the English.

So what does a Blues Band do on St. Patrick’s Day? We still play blues. Our band, Fat Daddy Blues Band will be doing the blues at Imbibe Saturday night from 7:30 till 10:30. Come on out but don’t expect “Danny Boy”.